…2 fire extinguishers in it and 8 more waiting outside.
…2 fire masks so, in case you use all 10 fire extinguishers and there is still a fire, you can dawn a mask and, instead of passing out from smoke inhalation, you will be fully conscious as you burn to death.
…2 nightstands with switches. I am truly the master of my domain. There is not an appliance or light that I can’t control simply by rolling over.
…midnight phone calls: “You want girl for massage?” I guess it’s hard to find a hotel in these parts where “massages” aren’t offered at all hours of the night. And NO I didn’t get the midnight massage. …
A big thanks to Phalline, Chhuon, and all the other people who let me into their lives. This slideshow pretty much puts a wrap on my posts for Cambodia. I’m off to China.
In the USA we didn’t invent the blue jean. We just made ‘em cool.
Jeans were first worn by the Italian Navy. But riveted jeans were first produced in San Francisco by Levi Strauss. He was a German immigrant. So, maybe blue jeans aren’t as All-American as I’d like to think, but I’ve got two words for you: James Dean.
Levi’s has such a connection with the average American that they were one of the last companies to start sourcing internationally. The delay hurt them. It’s impossible to compete when your competition can make their product using labor that costs a fraction of what yours does.
(Note: That’s not me in the picture. I’m not letting myself go that much!)
Between me and you, the temple at Angkor killed my knees. They feel old. Going up is no problem, but going down…yikes! Elderly Japanese women were asking me if I needed help.
One of my favorite parts about Angkor was talking to the young girls who sell cold drinks, t-shirts, scarves, and about anything else you could possibly need and not need. They are pushy but fun and very clever. They got some money out of me and I didn’t want anything. Many of the girls speak multiple languages. One girl I met spoke 11!
Another girl, who I feature in the upcoming slideshow,…
Take for instance professional soccer coach and former player Scotty Lee. Scotty met some Iranians at a bar and the next thing he knew he was working as a humanitarian in Bosnia during the war for the Iranian government. Scotty has stories with snipers, mortars, and tense check points. All crazy.
But he’s a good kind of crazy.
While on a return trip to Bosnia some kids were killed by a land mine during a game of soccer. Scotty had a crazy idea. Teach soccer and teach land mine awareness. It may not seem like the most logical correlation, but as Scotty puts it, “You can’t be a football player without legs. And you can’t be a goalie without arms.”
I taped my second interview for the World Vision Report on Wednesday. The first covered the premise of my quest and my experiences in Honduras and Bangladesh. Wednesday’s just covered Cambodia.
When I look back at all of the interviews I’ve given over the years….wait, these were my first two. Anyhow, I think they went well, but I don’t have anything to compare them to. At the end of both interviews, I felt like I should have mentioned something that I didn’t get a chance to work in:
I should have told Peggy, the host, that the most surprising thing about Cambodia was getting a shoulder massage at the urinal. Or when she asked me what else I’ve been up to I should have told her…
The temples of Angkor are amazing, but there are a couple of things that could be done to ratchet up the temple’s appeal. Some suggestions:
– Flood it. Angkor is the best dive site in the world. If only there were 50 meters of water sitting on top of it. Swimming through the narrow corridors and hovering over the iconic spires would be unforgettable. Add marine life. WOW! What’s better than swimming through the Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas? Swimming through the gallery of a Thousand Buddhas with a shark!
I know this is a sacrilege. You might be thinking, “I don’t know how to SCUBA dive and I want to see Angkor.” Know this: I’m not thinking about you….
In the USA we didn’t invent the blue jean. We just made ‘em cool.
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